The VanDea
A raspberry pi for you van. A tiny computer capable of infinite uses. held up using standoffs on a piece of wood
(@TODO pic)
The Build
Materials
- a Pi, SBC, or computer*.
- standoffs and screws**
- some way to power the Pi
- some beer
* I will be referring to this as a Pi and a Pi with at least 1G of RAM is what I suggest.
** I bought a battery module that came with standoffs and screws. I am doing this because I plan to run analytics on the solar energy and battery power of the vehicle even when the inverter is off.
The Process
We are going to start by drilling pilot holes to put the standoffs in. I hammered them in after that, after giving them a couple turns to hold them in place.
Now you are using a battery module like me, you will use another set of standoffs to put on the battery module, leaving another setup of screw holes for the Pi. Now we will screw the Pi to the standoffs.
To make it extra secure, I’ve becoming a fan of using velcro strips and screws to hold things in place. Drill your pilot holes with the Velcro in place. Then screw them down. I placed the Velcro over the USB ports because anywhere else had the potential of bending the GPIO headers. I also use the Velcro later for the cord I use for the solar charge controller.
A Pi doesn’t draw much power, but as a result you can’t draw too much power out of it from the USB or monitor. After finishing my setting up guide including the VNC portion, you won’t be needing to use a monitor for the Pi even for using a GUI. My battery module had a USB hub in it, but I recommend looking into adding a USB hub for your future projects. This will come in handy for cameras and other peripherals that may require a good amount of power.
Well
It’s a 10/10 VanDea for your vehicle. Below I’ll post projects, but having a dedicated device for your vehicle offers unlimited potential. Pi’s being cheap and powering them even cheaper, there’s no reason not too.